Back in November, Blizzard and NetEase ended their 14-year partnership to bring the Warcraft developerâs games to China. Now, it sounds like the NetEase team that handled the companyâs games has been dissolved completely.
South China Morning Post reports that the NetEase affiliated Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology has laid off or reassigned âmost staffâ working within the subsidiary team. The less-than-100-person team had already been losing talent after NetEase and Blizzard broke off their partnership, though a âsmall number of technical staffâ were relocated to other teams within Shanghai.
According to South China Morning Postâs sources, the team was largely operational personnel that saw to general operations rather than handling any of the actual game development. The report says 10 team members will stay behind to deal with technical and customer service issues that come after suspending the games in China, but will likely be gone within the next six months.
This entire mess affects Overwatch 2, Diablo III, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm, and will render those games unplayable in China. Notably, Diablo Immortal, which was co-developed by Blizzard and NetEase, has been unaffected by the partnershipâs end.
The NetEase and Blizzard partnership began back in 2008, but the companies didnât renew the contract last year, ending the 14-year partnership. According to a statement from NetEase CEO William Ding, the two companies disagreed on âmaterial differences on key terms,â and couldnât resolve whatever issues came up. What followed was a suspension of sales for Blizzard games in China, though Overwatch 2âs second season and World of Warcraftâs Dragonflight expansion were still launched at the tail end of the year.
The timing of the partnership troubles came shortly after Overwatch 2âs launch in October, which meant Chinese players only had a few short months with the shooter before it was yanked from the territory.
